Cornies, CO2 and all that

[Jon Lacey]

I have four corny kegs and I am looking to buy a CO2 cylinder for them.
A couple of questions.

How long (I know, how long is a piece of string) would a 6 kilo CO2 bottle last, if I am force carbonating and keeping top pressure on the kegs.

Also, is it safe to have a CO2 bottle indoors? I keep my cornies upstairs but do not really want to go through the paperwork if I kill the wife with fumes...

Any help from you experts will be appreciated.

[mysterio]

You can usually hear if there's any gas leaking from the cylinder. If you're careful you should be fine but I don't want to be held responsible if you and your wife asphyxiate

I've got a 6.35 kilo cylinder which I'm hoping will last a year or more.

[RabMaxwell]

Hello jon if you invest in a Beer Engine from e-bay your C02 will last even longer.Best thing i ever bought. Cheers Rab Maxwell(Brewing in ayrshire)

[bod]

i think i need to check all my connections as my widget world bottle didnt even last one keg. but from what i've heard a 6 kilo tank will last a good 20 cornies, for both force carbing and dispensing!

[PieOPah]

Having done a search on 'Beer Engine' on Ebay I have found a lot of Hand Pumps for beer.

This is something I would have dearly loved. To be able to hand pull a pint of home brew, what could be better??

BUT, how could this work? How would I attach a Hand Pump to a barrel AND be able to keep the beer contamination free for the extended period of time it is in my Keg. I can understand a pub using thses as there is little risk of the beer having time to go off after O2 exposure.

Can a Hand Pump be connected to a barrel and used over an extended period of time??

[steve_flack]

You have to replace the volume of beer drawn off with a gas. Now a traditionalist would say this should be air - indeed this is what CAMRA stipulates for pubs. On the other hand you probably don't drink a whole keg in three days so that's not really practical here. The best option is to use a cask breather which is a demand valve for CO2 that should only let CO2 flow into the keg when there's a negative pressure.

[steve_flack]

I'm in Camra and I happen to agree with you in general. There are pubs in our area that do use cask breathers and you can tell...they seem to carbonate the beer excessively. I think they are the exception though - mostly you couldn't tell. Actually IIRC Camra does allow cask breathers on very slow selling ales if the pump clip says it's served by cask breather. They just don't want them on everything. I think the idea is that you should serve a number of beers that your turnover allows. I'm sure we've all been to pubs that serve too many beers and none of them have been that great. I'd rather have 1 or 2 fantastic beers than 8 mediocre ones.

[steve_flack]

Edit: Double Post

[Frothy]

One of those 5L kegs is good for dispensing over 1000 pints.
I'd buy/ hire a smaller one from the tool hire place, takes up much less space.

Matt

[niall]

I've got a 6.35 kilo cylinder which I'm hoping will last a year or more.

How tall is the 6.35 kilo cylinder? Would it fit in an under counter fridge? This is the size that BOC offer and I may have made a breakthrough in getting one.

[niall]

Cheers DaaB